Aston Villa captain John McGinn in total agreement with Man City star Rodri amid recent fixture claim

Add as preferred source on Google

Aston Villa star John McGinn has weighed in on the fixture list verdict after the Champions League victory over Young Boys on Tuesday night.

Under the tutelage of Unai Emery, Aston Villa are a club that now competes across all fronts, challenging for Europe in the Premier League while targeting silverware in other competitions.

Villa kicked off their Champions League campaign with a 3-0 win over Young Boys and for captain John McGinn, it was a proud moment.

The Scottish midfielder arrived at the club for £3 million in 2018 and is now adored by the Villa faithful, affectionately known as ‘Meatball’.

McGinn is one of several players in Emery’s squad who is immune to rotation and that means in all competitions, for club and country, the Scotsman played a whopping 66 matches last season.

That is a mentally and physically taxing schedule, regardless of how much they get paid, and one that has sparked a heated debate among many players.

• READ MORE: Morgan Rogers and Youri Tielemans blown away by what one Aston Villa teammate did vs Young Boys

Man City star Rodri threatens to strike over fixture schedule

Although footballers are extremely well paid for the job they do, the fixture list for most high level athletes is relentless and most weeks they will play three games.

Manchester City midfielder Rodri is one player who has raised his concerns about the demands being put on players, especially with the extra two matches being played in the new Champions League format.

• READ MORE: Exact dates of Aston Villa’s Champions League fixtures confirmed 

Speaking ahead of their recent clash against Inter Milan, Rodri was asked whether he could see players striking in the future, to which he replied: “I think we’re close to that. It’s the general opinion of the players.

“And if it keeps this way, we’ll have no other option, I really think… It’s something that worries us. We are the guys who suffer!”

John McGinn agrees with Rodri over fixture debate

McGinn agrees with the Man City star and believes that the demanding fixture schedule is ‘getting out of hand’.

“I think that there is a part of it that’s getting a little out of hand, especially the Club World Cup next season,” McGinn told Birmingham Live.

“We are fortunate to be well-paid for doing a job we absolutely love. No-one is getting away from that but at times the mental side of things you need to switch off.

“Initially, when we first got into European competition, it was like ‘keep the games coming, just keep ‘em coming.’ But it is hard to churn them out when you are playing 70-plus games a season and then you’re playing international games.

“There’s not a lot of time to rest, so they need to get the balance a bit better and there’s a lot of people pushing for that. We’re supporting that. We want to be successful and we love playing football but the balance has to be right.”

• READ MORE: Unai Emery now told ‘sensational’ Aston Villa star is one of the Premier League’s best summer signings

How many games could Aston Villa play this season?

Along with the 38-game Premier League season, Villa play at least eight games in the Champions League.

If they finish in the top eight of the table, they will automatically qualify for the round of 16, so that would guarantee at least an extra two games.

Whereas if they finished between 9th and 24th in the table, they would go into a play-off round with a win securing their place in the last 16.

Let’s say Emery’s men get knocked out in the first knockout round, that’s a minimum of 10 games in Europe’s elite competition, which would push them close to 50 when factoring in the Premier League.

That is the total before adding the Carabao Cup and FA Cup games into proceedings and depending on how far they go into both competitions, Villa could be touching close to 60 games before the season draws to a close in May.